Welcome to Illusion City…

Zouo (Japanese for “hatred”) was one of the most interesting hardcore acts in Japan in the early ’80s.
They released only an EP (the final agony) in 1984, and a split before fading into nothingness. They played a very harsh hardcore, borderline with black metal, both in the music and in the lyrics (the theme of the demonic and the satanic is central in this EP) and this is very interesting: remember, at the time Hellhammer and Bathory were moving their first steps and I doubt that their material was available in Japan!
The band’s singer, Cherry (Katsunori Nishida) moved in the USA and become friend with Glenn Danzig and introduced him to Japanese comics, in particular Devilman, of which Danzig became a great fan. Cherry is also the oldest brother of Butcher, the singer of the hardcore punk act Outo.

Recently some unreleased material from Zouo has been released as “A Roar Agitating Violent Age” by the Crustwar label. Some old video bootlegs are floating around the net as well, one of them can be downloaded from archive.org.

Enough talking now…enjoy Son of Satan, the first track off “the final agony” !

Time for an unreleased track by Danzig!
This one comes from the 1987 demo of the band, previous to the first Danzig album. This is one of the two unreleased song which are contained here, mortal sin, also known as when death had no name.
The song is a bridge between the old Samhain sound and the Danzig sound. Punkish influences can be heard here, with a bit of thrash metal as well.
Enjoy :)

Avant-gardish minimal pop from Kyoto. This track is off their self titled album released in 1995. The song title means “Sunset on the Third Street”.
They mix a lot of influences, ranging from psychedelia to irregular rhythms, from dreamy landscapes to noisy interludes. The very good evanescent female vocals gives the music a touch of mystery and a great charming quality.
Definitively a must hear.